Guiding and transfer device



0a. 27, 1942. w. T. 'MOHAN 2,300,359

GUIDING AND TRANSFER DEVICE Filed July 3, 1940 2 Sheets-Sheet l N- h\ I g 1 wv N iw Q x 5mm W/LLMM 7T Maya/v, @K/QA I in? flfarfley 0a. 27, 1942. w. T. MOHAN 2,300,359

GUIDING AND TRANSFER DEVICE 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed July 3, 1940 v [mm afar: ilLL/mw 7.7 /0/1 4/v,

. way/2 06 Patented Oct. 27, 1942 UNITED STATES PATENT FFICE 4- Claims.

.This invention relates to guiding and transfer devices, and more particularly to one which is adapted for guiding a bar or pipe to given location and subsequently transferring the same to a skidway or conveyer.

In the manufacture of seamless pipes and tubes,'by way of example, it is customary to advance a solid or hollow workpiece between a plurality of metal-working rolls and an intermediately disposed mandrel. It is'extremely important that there be assured the proper entry and egress'of the workpiece into and out of the pass defined by the metal-working rolls; otherwise serious complications result. The workpiece,'which advanced helically, acquires a vibratory motion, or whisps to such an extent as to have its quality impaired.

According to conventional practice, a given seamless pipe or tube mill may be so set up as to produce workpieces of differing outside diameters. That is to say, the metal-working in strumentalities of a mill may be so changed or adjusted as to afford the production of tubular workpieces of outside diameters which extend over a substantial range.

Accordingly, after there has been produced an order for tubular workpieces of a given outside diameter, the mill may be so changed or adjusted as to produce an order of tubular workpieces having a different outside diameter. cases it is also necessary to change the guide devices which are disposed coaxially of the line of pass and on the outlet bed 0;. the mill. These guide devices substantially encirgle the mandrel bar which supports the mandreland also the In most tubular workpiece as it is advanced helically onto the mandrel bar. These guide devices control whipping to practical proportions and conventionally take the form of a series of aligned pairs of semicylindrical segments-divided on thehorizontal, the lower segmentzb'eihg stationary and the upper being susceptible of upward swinging movement to permit a transfer device to engage the bottom of the tubular workpiece after the mandrel bar has been Withdrawn and to transfer the same onto a skidway or other conveying device. These conventional guiding devices, while somewhat practical in operation, are inflexible in function as they can only suitably control whipping of tubular workpieces whose outside diameters are within a relatively narrow range as compared with the operating range of the remainder of the mill. Therefore, these conventional guide devices must be frequently changed; and this requires several hours time, which occasions a high cost of production, and often an entire loss of profit,particularly if a small order is being produced.

It is one of the objects of the present invention to provide a novel guiding and transfer device of a type which is applicable to seamless pipe and tube mills; the said device being operable not only to function as a guidinginstrumentality through a wide range of variations in outside diameter of the tubular workpiece, but one which, at the same time, functions to transfer the tubular workpiece from the outlet bed of the mill onto a suitable skidway or other conveying device. I

Another object is the provision of a combined device of the class described which may be operated in but a few moments time to cover a substantial range of sizes, and also to transfer in a. similar period of time the tubular workpiece from the outlet bed of the mill.

Still another object is the provision of a combined device having the foregoing advantages and one which is, at the same time, relatively easy and inexpensive to manufacture, install, operate, and maintain.

The invention, then, comprises the features hereinafter fully described and asparticularly pointed out in the claims, the following description and the annexed drawings setting forth in detail a certain illustrative embodiment of the invention, this being indicative of but one of a number of ways in which the principles of the invention may be employed.

In said drawings:

Figure 1 is a plan of the apparatus of the nvention as used on the piercing pass of a seamless pipe or tube mill;

Figure 2 is a rear end elevation of the apparatus of Figure 1; and

Figure 3 is an enlarged view on the line III-III of Figure 1.

Referring more particularly to the drawings, the letter A designates a pair of suitably actuated metal-working rolls such as are commonly used in the manufacture of seamless pipes and tubes and which, in the present instance, are shown as being of the well known Stiefel or cone type. Intermediate the metal-working rolls Athere is disposed a mandrel, designated at B, which interiorly supports the workpiece being processed and determines the inside diameter thereof. In the present instance this mandrel B is shown as a piercing-plug which is used to transpose a solid billet into a tubular article or workpiece. Whether the mandrel-.13 takes the form of a piercing plug, as shown in the drawings, or is of one of the other types well under.- stood in the art as being susceptible of use on workpieces which have previously been pierced, it is in any event supported by a mandrel bar C which extends along the outlet bed of the mill and is attached to a reciprocable carriage (not shown). This reciprocable carriage (not shown) holds the mandrel B against the thrust of the workpiece and permits the latter to move completely onto the mandrel bar C and into the out- C and into the guide devices, the mandrel B is removed from the advance or forward end of the mandrel bar and the latter is retracted and moved from within the workpiece by the rearward movement of the carriage.

According to the teachings of the present invention, there is disposed along the outlet bed of the mill suitable pedestals 2 which carry a pair of parallel longitudinally extending rotatable shafts 3 which occupy a common horizontal plane with and are spaced equidistant from the line of pass of the mill which is designated at X.

At suitable distances, and in opposed relationship, along the rotatable shafts 3 there is secured to each shaft a series of rotatable heads or turrets 4 to the periphery of which there is detachably secured, as by bolts and nuts 1 and 8 respectively, a series of semicylindrical segments [0, the cylindrical axes of which are parallel to the line of pass of the mill and, accordingly, the axes of the rotatable shafts 3.

It is to be especially noted that the semicylindrical segments H! are so arranged that the ends thereof are not equidistant from the rotatable shaft 3 carrying the rotatable head 4 to which they are detachably secured. That is to say, when considered in conjunction with the arrows of rotation shown in Figure 3, the semicylindrical segments Ill carired by the rotatable head 4 on the right-hand side of said figure are so mounted that their forwardly moving ends "are elevated, as shown at It), with respect to the opposite ends lo thereof; while it is otherwise with respect to the semicylindrical segments l3 carried by the oppositely disposed rotatable head 4. Thus, it will be seen that when the semicylindrical segments H! are moved into cooperative relationship in such manner as to be concentric about the line of pass X of the mill, the line of division between said segments, instead of occupying a horizontal plane in the manner of the semicylindrical segments of the prior art, occupies the position designated by the arrow in Figure 3.

Assuming a tubular workpiece II to be disposed in the guides formed by the aligned series of semicylindrical segments ll] of the present invention, the rotation of the rotatable shafts 3 in the direction of the arrows of Figure 3 will result in the supporting of the workpiece II by the semicylindrical segments l carried by the rotatable head on the left-hand side of said figure. The tubular workpiece II is so carried until the aligned semicylindrical segments l3 supporting the same occupy the position designated at Y, at which time it will be permitted to roll therefrom by gravity onto a suitable adjacently disposed skidway or other suitable coni"eyor l2. At this time, the shafts 3 are rotated, either by continuing in the same direction or by reversal, until the semicylindrical segments,

designated at Y, occupy their previous position.

This manner of operation is continued so long as tubular workpieces of the same diameter are being produced. A

When a change is made in the outside diam-- eters of the tubular workpieces being produced by the mill, the shafts 3 are suitably rotated until the properly sized semicylindrical segments II are aligned with the line of pass X of the mill,

shafts l5 whose axes occupy a common plane.

The shafts I5 are adapted for joint rotation, as by means of the intermeshed gears lI, one of which is keyed to each of the said shafts. Each of the rotatable shafts 3 has secured thereto a gear l8, which meshes with one of the gears l1 carried by the shafts 15. One of the shafts Ii also carries for conjoint rotation therewith a chain gear 2! which meshes with a silent chain 23 which is, in turn, connected to a chain gear 24 which is secured to the driven shaft 25 of a speed reducer 26, the latter being actuated in any suitable manner by an adjacent motor 28.

Suitable electric controls, including limit switches and the like, are provided for enabling the movement of the rotatable heads or turrets 4 in the manner previously described; but as such form no part of the present invention and are, accordingly, not shown.

While I have shown and described one specific embodiment of the present invention, it will be seen that I do not wish to be limited exactly thereto, since various modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the invention, as defined by the following claims.

I claim: 1. A guiding and transfer device for tube mills comprising, in combination, a series of opposed rotatable heads having their axes of rotation occupying substantially a common horizontal plane, a series of segments carried by each of said rotatable heads, each opposed pair of segments being so constructed as when in opposed relationship to substantially define a circle and when so disposed to be divided on a line offset with respect to the horizontal.

2. A guiding and transfer device for tube mills comprising, in combination, a series of'opposed rotatable heads having their axes of rotation occupying substantially a common horizontal plane, a series of segments of different sizes carried by each of said rotatable heads, each opposed pair of segments being so constructed as when in opposed relationship to substantially define a circle and when so disposed to be divided on a line offset with respect to the horizontal.

3. A guiding and transfer device for tube mills comprising, in combination, a series of opposed rotatable heads having their axes of rotation occupying, substantially 1a commdn horizontalplane, a series of detachable segments carried by each of said rotatable heads, each opposed pair of segments being so constructed as when in opposed relationship to substantially define a circle and when so disposed to be divided on a line offset with respect to the horizontal.

4. A guiding and transfer device for tube mills comprising, in combination, a series of opposed rotatable heads having their axes of rotation oceupying substantially a common horizontal plane, a series of detachable segments of different sizes carried by each of said rotatable heads, each opposed pair of-segments being so constructed as when in opposed relationship to substantially define a circle and when so disposed to be divided on a line offset with respect to the horizontal.

' WILLIAM T. MOHAN. 

